In Santa Cruz - The American River College Men's Basketball team wins big in their season opener vs Gavilan before earning their first loss against state ranked Cabrillo College.  

Verse Gavilan, Freshman Guard Miles Macayan poured in 20 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists to lead the Beavers to victory while Forward Corey (CJ) Hazewood set the tone on the front line with 18 points and 10 rebounds and 2 assists,  

"You could tell our nerves were getting the best of us early in the Gavilan game, but then we settled down and started executing like we should on both ends of the court.  The staff and I thought we could carry the momentum into the Cabrillo game, but we just didn't play well." Coach Lorente said of his team's performance during the opening weekend.

Verse Cabrillo, the Seahawks controlled the pace of the game with length, strength and a chaotic press that caused the Beavers to turn it over 36 times.  "We ran into a buzz-saw on Sunday, with pressure that was hard to handle, obviously, exposing that's where we need to grow.  Our guards need to be able to step up and be composed under pressure, and learn how to play at a faster pace while facilitating the offense and being strong with the ball.  Even though we had 22 turnovers in the first half, we were only down 6 at halftime, showing that we were still competing in many other ways.  Our youth really showed through in the second half as we just couldn't maintain control of the ball and lost that competitive spirit about 10  minutes in.   This type of sloppy performance is simply unacceptable." Coach Lorente added of his team's losing effort on Sunday.  "Cabrillo is very good.  Much respect to Coach Page and his staff for having those guys ready to go!".

The Beavers travel to Livermore to compete in the always competitive Tony Costello Tip-Off Classic at Las Positas College.  Lorente credits LPC Head Coach James Giacomazzi for being a huge influence on his coaching career and the first person to really encourage him to pursue his dream and showed him the path to be a collegiate basketball coach.